Eyeleting machine



April 1948- is. 1., GOOKIN 1 2,439,465

EYELETING MACHINE Filed Sept. 14, 1944 Inventor \Rwm E219 Attorney Sylvester L fiookin' Patented Apr. 13, 1948 EYELETING MACHINE Sylvester L. Gookin, Quincy, Mass., assignor to I United Shoe Machinery Corporation. Flemington, N. J., a corporation of New Jersey Application September 4,1944, Serial No. 552,591

' 9 Claims. (Cl. 153--1) This invention relates to eyeleting machines and its purpose is to provide means for forming an eye of wire and afllxing a common eyelet therein to maintain assembled relation of the parts. Assemblages of this type are used in electrical signaling apparatus and in the electrical equipment of automobiles, the eyes thus reinforced and secured by clenched eyelets being intended to be attached to. binding posts.

The common practice prior to this invention has been to form an eye of wire apart from an eyeleting machine and thereafter place the eye on one of the eyelet-setting tools of the machine. If the wires are composed of many small strands, as they usually are, the ends of some of. the strands commonly spring away from the others instead of lying in a circle small enough to be contained within the confines of an eyelet. Furthermore, if the Wires are handled between the eye-forming stage and the eyelet-afiixing stage, too many of the eyes become deformed in consequence of such handling.

To avoid defects due to such causes the present invention provides an improved eyeleting machine including means arranged to form an eye of wire at the eyelet-setting locality. To this end, one of the eyelet-setting tools, commonly termed anvil, is provided with a central pilot portion that constitutes a mandrel around which the wire may be wrapped to form an eye. In addition, this tool is surrounded by a rotatable member of which a portion is arranged to wrap the wire and thus form the eye. As herein illustrated, means are also provided to impart rotation automatically to the wrapping member in consequence of operating the other eyelet-setting tool, but the utility of the novel assemblage comprising the anvil and the wrapping member is not limited to automatic operation of the latter, since manual rotation thereof, while less rapid and less convenient, would accomplish the desired result.

Referring to the drawing, Fig. 1 is a side elevation of an eyeleting machine in which the present invention is embodied; Fig. 2 is a front elevation, partly in section, 01

the eye-forming and eyelet-setting tools and the lower portion of the eyelet raceway intheir initial positions;

Fig. 3 illustrates the relation of the tools at the conclusion of a terminal-forming operation;

Fig. 4 is a top plan view of the lower tool and a terminal portion of wire assembled as in Fig. 2; Fig. 5 illustrates the elements of Fig.4 at the conclusion of the eye-forming stage without insertion of an eyelet into the eye of wire; and

Fig. 6 is an inverted plan view on a larger scale of a completed terminal.

The machine herein illustrated and described is of the same general design and type as that set forth in United States Letters Patent No. 1,823,894, granted September 22, 1931, on my application, except the specialfittings thereof related to spinning eyelets. Those fittings, including a rotary anvil and means for driving it, are superseded for present purposes by fittings that embody means for wrapping a terminal portion of wire around the pilot of an anvil to form an eye.

The body In of the anvil is aifixed to a horn l I and the latter is affixed to the frame l2. The anvil is provided with an annular upsetting shoulder l4 and with an upstanding pilot l3 for guiding an eyelet 2| to the shoulder. A compression spring l5 surrounds the anvil below the shoulder M and is supported by the horn. The spring supports a rotatable sleeve I6 that surrounds the anvil and has a bearing thereon by I which it is guided up and down in telescopic relation thereto and maintained in concentric relation to the pilot and the upsetting shoulder. The sleeve is provided with an upstanding finger ll arranged to wrap a terminal portion of wire [8 around the pilot I3 in consequence of being rotated about its axis. The upper extremity of the finger normally stands in the path of the margin of a downwardly movable eyelet-setting .tool 20, which, in the process of depressing an eyelet 2| along the pilot l3, will depress the flange of the eyelet against the finger and thereby depress the sleeve l6 and compress the spring 15.

Although manual rotation of the sleeve prior to downward movement of the tool 20 would wrap a wire [8 around the pilot (Fig. 5) and thereby form an eye l9 adapted to receive an eyelet, the invention provides means for utilizing the downward movement of that tool to produce rotation of thesleeve of the desired angular extent. For this purpose the sleeve I6 is provided with a helical slot 22 of steep pitch. A pin 23 afiixed to the body of the anvil lies in this slot and cooperates with its walls to produce rotation of the sleeve in one direction in consequence of depressing it, and reverse rotation in consequence of refiex action of the spring [5. The range of rotation is about 270 of one revolution.

The tool 20 is carried by a plunger 24 and is provided with, a bore containing a springpressed spindle 25 adapted to pick an eyelet from araceway 26. The plunger extends through a bearing in the frame I2 and derives its motion from a crank pin 21 and connections including a connecting rod 28, a lever 29, link 30 and a twin thereof. The bore in the tool 20 is large enough to receive the pilot l3 (Fig. 3).

The raceway 28 is connected to the frame l2 by a horizontal pivot pin 3|. It derives its motion from a rotary cam 32 by which the crank pin 21 is carried. The connections for oscillating the raceway include a rockshait 33, two arms 34 and 35 aflixed thereto, a cam roll 38 carried by the arm 34, and a link (not shown) connecting the arm 35 and the raceway.

The cam 32 is aillxed to a power-driven shaft 38 on which a driving pulley 39 is loosely mounted. This pulley, continuously rotated by a belt 40, constitutes the driving member of a clutch of well-known construction adapted to be tripped into operation by depressing a rod 4| against a lifting spring 42. When the rod rises after tripping the clutch, it disengages the latter and arrests rotation of the shaft 38 at the position represented in Fig. 1, the tool 20 then standing at the top of its stroke and the delivery end of the raceway lying in register with it. Starting and stopping mechanism of the same type is illustrated and described in United States Letters Patent No. 1,351,138, granted August 31, 1920, on application of R. B. Smith.

When the rotatable sleeve l6 occupies its initial position (Figs. 2 and 4) the space between the finger l1 and the pilot [3 is just enough to accommodate a wire I8 from which insulating material has been stripped. Since the fiange of the eyelet remains above the tip of the finger I! its diameter is not restricted. It may be greater than that of the anvil, and must be greater to overlap the tip of the finger I! as shown in Fig.

3. Consequently, when such an eyelet has been installed in a loop of wire (Fig. 6) the flange of 'the eyelet willextend radially beyond the clenched prongs and thereby overlap and cover the ends of the prongs. Once the bared wire has been placed in that space it is held against the pilot by the finger H as shown in Fig. 4, and the operator has only to trip the clutch as by depressing a treadle (not shown) to draw down the controlling rod 4|. If the treadle is released immediately after the clutch has been tripped,

the shaft 38 will be arrested at the termination of one revolution during which the finger I! will rotate and wrap the wire around and against the pilot as shown in Fig. 5, the spindle 25 will pick an eyelet 2| (preferably scored) from the raceway, the tool 20 will thrust the barrel of the eyelet through the eye IQ of wire and upset it against the shoulder M of the anvil, and the tool 20, the raceway and the sleeve 16 will thereafter return to their initial positions. The eye of wire, reinforced and secured with a clenched eyelet (Figs. 3 and 6), may then be lifted clear of the pilot l3 and removed, the terminal-forming operation having been completed.

If the spindle 25 does not receive an eyelet from the raceway when the tool 20 is operated, the tool itself will engage the finger I1 and thereby depress the sleeve IB, and an eye of wire will be formed without receiving an eyelet, but no harm willbe done. The formed eye may remain on the pilot until it receives an eyelet during a subsequent operating cycle.

When the wire-wrapping member I! is operated by the tool 20 as herein illustrated, its wrapping motion does not begin until its tip is engaged by that tool or by the intervening flange of an eyelet, as the case may be. In either event,

the wire cannot slip off the tip of the wrapping member after the effective contact is made.

Nevertheless, to compact the ends of individual- 1. An eyeleting machine comprising an anvil having an upsetting shoulder and a pilot proiecting therefrom, an eyelet-setting tool arranged to co-operate with said anvil, and a sleeve surrounding and bearing on said anvil behind said shoulder, the sleeve being rotatable about the axis of said pilot and movable axially and having a finger in the path of the margin of said tool.arranged to wrap a terminal portion of a wire element around said pilot in the form of an eye.

2. An eyeleting machine comprising an anvil having an upsetting shoulder and a pilot projecting therefrom, an eyelet-setting tool arranged to co-operate with said anvil, a sleeve surrounding said anvil behind said shoulder and having a finger in the path of the margin of said tool arranged to wrap a terminal portion of a wire element around said pilot in the form of an eye, and means arranged to rotate the sleeve around the axis of the anvil through a portion of one revolution to do the wrapping.

3. An eyeleting machine comprising an anvil having an upsetting shoulderand a pilot projecting therefrom, an eyelet-setting tool arranged to co-operate with said anvil, a rotatable sleeve surrounding the anvil behind said shoulder, the sleeve having a helical slot of steep pitch and a finger in the path of the margin of said tool arranged to wrap a terminal portion of wire around said pilot, and a fixed pin engaging the walls of said slot to rotate the sleeve around the axis of the anvil in consequence of moving it endwise.

4. An eyeleting machine comprising an anvil having an upsetting shoulder and a pilot projecting upwardly therefrom, an eyelet-setting tool arranged to co-operate with said anvil, a rotatable sleeve surrounding the anvil below said shoulder and bearing thereon, the sleeve having a finger projecting upwardly above said shoulder and arranged to wrap a terminal portion of wire around said pilot, resilient means arranged normally to raise the sleeve, and means arranged to rotate the sleeve about its axis in consequence of depressing it.

5. An eyeleting machine comprising an anvil having an upstanding pilot and an upsetting shoulder surrounding the base of the pilot, a downwardly movable eyelet-setting tool arranged to co-operate with the anvil, a member rotatable about the axis of the pilot and arranged to wrap a terminal portion of wire around the latter, said member being movable up and down with respect to the anvil, resilient means arranged normally to raise said rotatable member into the path of said downwardly movable tool, and means arranged to rotate said member as it is depressed.

6. An eyeleting machine comprising an anvil having an upstanding pilot and an upsetting tion of wire around the pilot.

7. An eyeleting machine comprising a fixed anvil and a rotatable sleeve assembled in telescopic relation, the anvil having an annular upsetting shoulder and a pilot for guiding an eyelet thereto, an eyelet-setting tool movable toward and from the anvil, means for reciprocating said tool, a portion of said sleeve being rotatable around said pilot and formed to wrap a terminal portion of wire around the pilot, said wrapping portion being movable into andout of the path of said tool wth movement parallel with the axis of the pilot, and means for rotating the sleeve in opposite directions in consequence of moving it along said axis in opposite directions.

8. An eyeleting machine comprising an anvil having an upsetting shoulder, a movable sleeve surrounding the anvil behind said shoulder and having a bearing thereon, an eyelet-setting tool arranged to cooperate with the anvil, and means for moving said tool toward and from the anviland-sleeve assemblage, the anvil having a pilot and the sleeve having a finger both projecting toward said tool and forming a gap Just wide enough to receive a wire from which insulating material has been stripped, the sleeve being rotatable about its axis to carry said finger around the pilot, and the tip of the finger being located in the path of the margin of said tool but displaceable by the thrust of the tool toward said shoulder.

9. An eyeleting machine comprising an anvil having an annular upsetting shoulder and a pilot for guiding an eyelet thereto, a finger arranged alongside the pilot and spaced therefrom to hold an interposed terminal portion of wire initially against the pilot, means for carrying said finger in an arcuate path around the pilot to wrap the wire into the form of an eye, means arranged to install an eyelet in the eye of wire and thereby displace the finger from its position alongside the pilot, and a spring arranged normally to return the finger to said position.

SYLVESTER L. GOOKIN.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record inthe file of this patent:

' UNITED STATES PATENTS 

